


Pride & Picnics

by camerasparring



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Everyone lives, Ficlet, First Kiss, Kissing, Kissing in the Rain, Love Confessions, M/M, Morons in love, Picnics, Post-IT Chapter Two (2019), Pride and Prejudice References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-02-22 21:56:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23267671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camerasparring/pseuds/camerasparring
Summary: “Isn’t this gorgeous?”Richie gestures out to the whole of the park, brown and green grass, lumps of untended flowers, not to mention the dark clouds crowding the sky, and Eddie coughs out a laugh.“How did you even find this place?”--A Pride & Prejudice-inspired fic.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 12
Kudos: 73





	Pride & Picnics

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ReddieOrNot (cajungirlkye)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cajungirlkye/gifts).



> Request from ReddieOrNot on Twitter! I wrote about ten more ficlets (including Lumberjack Richie) but I might post the rest as a collection someday soon. 
> 
> Sorry for spamming people but this one is cute.

“Isn’t this gorgeous?”

Richie gestures out to the whole of the park, brown and green grass, lumps of untended flowers, not to mention the dark clouds crowding the sky, and Eddie coughs out a laugh. 

“How did you even find this place?” 

Richie shrugs. “When you’re alone in a city, you tend to find places by, you know, wandering around in your lonesome misery like a Peanuts character.” 

“Yeah, I can imagine the dopey music and the big black stripe across your shirt.” 

“Fuck you, I look horrible in yellow.” Richie grins at him, and Eddie grins back, just because he’s here, in Chicago, with Richie, and Richie fucking deserves it.

Eddie drapes out the picnic blanket and starts doling out the wax-paper wrapped sandwiches. He cracks opens the container of ranch he knows Richie likes to dip vegetables in. At least he’s eating them. Eddie’s learned to compromise after a few visits. 

“So you know I like, uh, how I came out,” Richie says, clearing his throat as they’re admiring the lack of view, and it’s right when the first dog of the day runs by, so Eddie almost misses it.

“You-wh-huh?” he says, intelligently. 

Luckily, Richie laughs, easy and kind, so he must be nervous. Eddie’s suddenly _very_ fucking nervous because why the fuck is _this_ coming up? Don’t panic. No need to panic. It’s Richie’s life. He wants to talk about it. They’re friends. Richie wants to be just- He wants to be friends. 

Don’t panic. 

“I came- I’m gay. Eddie. You know I’m gay, right?” 

Eddie’s eye twitches. Richie watches him seriously, like he seriously thinks- 

“Yes, what the fuck, I know you’re _gay_ ,” Eddie says. He sucks in and releases a breath, then turns back to look Richie in the eye. Something has softened, or maybe Richie’s decided to ignore how truly weird Eddie is being, because he shakes his head and continues.

“Anyway, I’m starting to date, right?” Richie says, and it has the cadence of a joke, the same way he’d say _And I was at the supermarket, right?_ only to be followed up by some dumb punchline about- whatever the fuck, Eddie is not a comedian but he knows Richie’s performance voice better than anyone. 

“Okay.” 

“Dating online is so fucking weird, man, I swear. Like, I’m fine texting and stuff but I got to the point where I called this guy and his voice was _totally_ different than I was expecting and I just… hung up. I didn’t know how to handle it.”

“Oh.” 

“And I have no idea how people meet in person. Maybe asking them over text? But adults don’t fucking meet people unless they start new jobs or- how the fuck do people meet? _Church_? That seems out-”

“How the fuck would I know where to meet people,” Eddie snaps, his limbs on fire, a carrot stick lodged firmly in his angry hand.

“Dude, I just thought maybe since you got div-”

“I don’t want to talk about my divorce right now, Richie.” 

Richie looks like he just took a slap. He’s all sprawled out, long legs and that ridge of fat rolled over the belt on his hips and chest hair peeking out from the top of the dumb t-shirt he wears under a blazer like he’s perpetually living in the nineties and Eddie wants to- he doesn’t want to think about the fact that Richie beat him to coming out, or the fact that Richie is the only one he hasn’t told, or the fact that Richie is now _dating_ and Eddie needs to come up with an explanation for why he’s being so aggressive and then Richie’s hand lands on his thigh. 

“Hey, man, I didn’t mean-”

Eddie stands up. Wipes his pants off even though all he’s had to eat is one half-munched carrot stick. A dull roar of thunder rolls through the sky. Eddie spots a gazebo in the near distance and charges toward it. 

Richie is right on his trail, picnic forgotten, and Eddie doesn’t even consider the fact that his phone is still out there, all of their stuff is, when the rain starts pouring. By the time he’s under shelter he’s soaked, and he turns to see Richie is, too, a drowned, stunned rat, and he expects he looks much the same. 

Eddie’s feet knock a hollow rhythm on the foundation of the gazebo, and it’s almost a joke, that he’s here, that he’s fucking _here_ and he has to tell him. Eddie can’t let Richie date someone else. Not when- not before Eddie lets him know.

“Why are you being so fucking pissy about this, man?” 

Eddie laughs, high and tight and hysterical.

“I don’t wanna fucking hear about your dating exploits like I’m at one of your goddamn comedy shows!”

“Oh, so I’m not about to talk about my life now?” 

Another crack of thunder. Or maybe lightning. Water falls off the roof of the gazebo in rocky sheets. Richie’s eyes never leave his.

“Not like that! Not… not _about_ that.”

“What the fuck, _why_?” Richie asks.

Eddie grunts. Richie’s panting now, and Eddie can’t tell if his eyes are red, but he’s moving closer, and Eddie wants to scream. He already is.

“I can’t-”

“No, fucking _tell_ me why you don’t want to hear about me trying to move on with my life after I-”

“Because I fucking _love_ you, okay?” Eddie yells through the knot in his chest, through the years of repression and fucked-up-ed-ness and his mom and his failed marriage and and and with Richie there will never stop being and’s and Eddie doesn’t think he really _wants_ it to stop.

“You-”

“I love you, I’m- I’m in love with you,” Eddie says, voice toned to a whisper. All the fight is gone out of him now, and he considers crying, but it feels right to say, and he’s taken his time to know it’s the truth and he’s already made Richie deal with enough of his emotions today. 

“Again, you-”

“I love you,” Eddie says, it rolls off his tongue now, maybe he’ll never stop saying it, but that would be creepy because Richie hasn’t really- responded, so Eddie says it again, “I love you a lot, really, no matter what you’re doing or how much you’re annoying me or how far away you are. Even when I forgot I think I did, but I can’t be sure ‘cause, _fuck_ , who the fuck knows, but I know _now_. And I want to be with you.” 

Richie takes slow, deliberate steps toward him. Eddie braces himself for the rejection. But Richie doesn’t stop moving until they’re nearly nose to nose. His eyes flit over where Eddie’s watching him, tilted up in wait, water dripping off every point of each of them. Eddie can see Richie’s rough stubble this close, and he wants to rub his palm over it, feel the burn of it, wants it against him. 

“Eds, I’m-”

“Please fucking kiss me,” Eddie breathes, and Richie presses into him, finally, as if Eddie knew he was _waiting_ , he fucking didn’t, but this is better than anything he could have imagined. 

Their cheeks are damp and cold from the rain, and so are their clothes, but they crowd together and Eddie can pretend they’re warm, from the hot slide of Richie’s tongue against his, from the desperate grip Richie has just above his hipbones. The pattering of the rain and the anger flowing through him dims in Eddie’s periphery as Richie kisses him slow, with meaning, with with with-

“Eds,” Richie breathes when they turn to adjust, and Eddie moans at the sound of him. 

Richie shakes his head again, like Eddie’s done something wrong, but he pulls their hands together, tangling their fingers in a strong hold and gently mouths over his cheek. Eddie closes his eyes and tries not to fall apart, he wants this so _much_ , it’s so fucking intense-

“Eddie,” Richie says again, into his skin, into his mouth, into the biting nips he lays on Eddie’s neck. 

“What?” Eddie finally whispers after the third or fourth time. 

“I love you,” Richie answers.

Eddie feels it in his bones, in Richie’s touch, in the rain. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! 
> 
> Please leave me a comment or yell at me [on Twitter](https://twitter.com/camerasparring) or BOTH, I love to hear from you if you're able/willing.


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